Sushi Chef : Sukiyabashi Jiro

408 Pages·2016·101.24 MB·English

by  Satomi

Sushi Chef Sukiyabashi Jiro
Production: Risa Cho SUKIYABASHI JIRO SHUN WO NIGIRU by SATOMI Shinzo
Copyright ©1997 by NAITO Shizue
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published by Bungeishunju Ltd., Japan English translation rights reserved by
Vertical, Inc., U.S.A., under the license granted by NAITO Shizue, Japan arranged with Bungeishunju Ltd.,
Japan Published by Vertical, Inc., New York, 2016
e-ISBN: 978-1-94299328-5
First Edition
Vertical, Inc.
451 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
www.vertical-inc.com
v3.1
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface – Invitation to Jiro Ono’s World
Chapter 1
Nigiri-dane in Spring and Summer
Japan Map of Nigiri-dane of the Four Seasons
Jiro Sushi Talk 1
Nigiri-dane in Spring and Summer
Kohada (gizzard shad), Shinko (young gizzard shad) • Iwashi (sardine) • Aji (horse mackerel) • Mako Garei
(marbled sole), Fukko (young sea bass), Shima Aji (striped jack), Inada (young yellowtail) • Koika (small
squid), Aori Ika (bigfin reef squid) • Tori Gai (cockles) • Awabi (abalone) • Anago (conger eel) • Shako (mantis
shrimp) • Katsuo (bonito)
Sukiyabashi Jiro Nigiri-dane Calendar
Jiro Sushi Talk 2
Nigiri-dane in Autumn and Winter
Saba (mackerel) • Sayori (halfbeak) • Sumi Ika (squid) • Kuruma Ebi (prawn) • Miru Gai (geoduck clam) • Aka
Gai (surf clam) • Madako (common octopus) • Hamaguri (hard clam) • Hirame (flounder), Soge (young
flounder)
<The reason I don’t make nigiri with them> Aoyagi (yellow tongue surf clam), Hotate Gai (scallop), Taira
Gai (razor clam) • Buri (yellowtail) • Madai (red sea bream)
Chapter 2
Making Nigiri with Hon Maguro
Map of Hon Maguro Migration around Japan
Four Kinds of Maguro Nigiri
Kami (upper) section
For the First Time in History: A Complete Section of Kinkai Hon
Maguro!
From Kama to Naka: Making nigiri with eighteen parts
Naka (middle) section
Shimo (lower) section
A Complete Exploration of Kinkai Hon Maguro
The Sections and Nigiri of Hon Maguro
Getting saku (slabs) out of maguro
Enpitsu (pencil) of Chutoro
Chijire of Maguro (crimping of tuna)
Zuke of Maguro (soy sauce-marinated tuna)
Jiro Sushi Talk 3
Making Nigiri with Hon Maguro
“If you want to eat delicious things, then become a regular” • It’s a delightful phenomenon that people are
starting to prefer lean meat • There is a reason I don’t like ’nawa • We can’t charge that much for a mere
nigiri • I’ll study extra hard about imported maguro from now on • Behold, the difference between kinkai
hon maguro and maguro from the Atlantic Ocean!
Chapter 3
Prepping the Four Seasons’ Nigiri
Silver-Skinned Fish • Whitefish • Colored Fish • Lean Meat • Squid • Shrimp • Shellfish • Simmered Items •
Gunkan Maki
Work of Sukiyabashi Jiro: Follow His Preparation Process
Shima Aji (striped jack) • Mako Garei (marbled sole) • Kohada (gizzard shad) • Shinko (young gizzard shad) •
Aji (horse mackerel) • Saba (mackerel) • Iwashi (sardine) • Sayori (halfbeak) • Kuruma Ebi (prawn) • Sumi Ika
(squid) • Aori Ika (bigfin reef squid) • Koika (small squid) • Aka Gai (surf clam) • Miru Gai (geoduck clam) •
Anago (conger eel) • Tako (octopus) • Hamaguri (hard clam) • Shako (mantis shrimp) • Awabi (abalone) •
Ikura (salmon roe) • Tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) • Nitsume (reduction sauce) • Nikiri (thin and sweet
glaze)
Chapter 4
Nori Maki, Tamagoyaki
Jiro Sushi Talk 4
Nori Maki, Tamagoyaki
Nori (dried seaweed) • Gunkan Maki (warship roll): Ikura (salmon roe) • Gunkan Maki (warship roll): Uni
(sea urchin) • Nori Maki (rolls) • Tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) • Gari (pickled ginger), Agari (sushi tea)
Nori Maki, Tamagoyaki
How to make oboro
How to cook kanpyo (dried gourd)
How to roll hoso maki (thin roll)
Chapter 5
Of Sumeshi
Chirashi-zushi (variety of toppings, mainly seafood, on top of a bed of
rice) Three Kinds
How to make barazushi
How to make sushi rice
How to make nigiri
How to pickle shoga (ginger), How to grate wasabi
Jiro Sushi Talk 5
Of Sumeshi
We make rice with an iron hagama (old-fashioned rice cooker) and keep it warm by storing it in a
warabitsu (straw tub) • I’m often told that my customers don’t get thirsty after eating our nigiri • It’s after
the war that nigiri got smaller • Over seventy and so much more to learn
Idle Talk Between a Sushi Restaurant Pops and His Regular
The reason ichinin-mae (an order for one) is a special bargain • For some reason, I forget to charge for
otoro (fatty tuna) • Who are his “welcome guests” and “unwelcome guests” • Good sushi restaurants
discipline customers
Afterword to the Japanese Paperback Edition
About the Authors
PREFACE
INVITATION TO JIRO ONO’S WORLD
This book is the ultimate “Edomae (Tokyo Bay)-style Nigiri Sushi Technical
Manual,” and without omission includes all of the nigiri, sake sides, and small
dishes served over the course of the year by the number-one sushi craftsman of
the present day, Jiro Ono.
When you peek into a plain wood tane box that’s unique to the Sukiyabashi
Jiro establishment, it’s clear which seafood is in season in the oceans around
Japan. The king of whitefish in the cold season is hirame (flounder), while fukko
(young Japanese sea bass) and mako garei (marbled sole) reign in summer. Octopus
tentacles become flavorful in winter, awabi (abalone) is in season in the Kanto area
in summer. Shako (mantis shrimp) can be found in the market all year round, but
they taste the best when they’re in the spawning phase in the springtime. In short,
this book is highly useful as “a glossary of seasonal seafood.”
Moreover, he didn’t simply demonstrate his brilliant and delicate technique.
He also exhaustively disclosed the secrets to the flavors of his renowned
restaurant.
Hon maguro (bluefin tuna) marinated in soy sauce. Pickled kohada (gizzard
shad). Steamed awabi (abalone). Simmered anago (conger eel). Boiled tako
(octopus). Boiled kuruma ebi (prawn). Marinated hamaguri (hard clam). Marinated
shako (mantis shrimp). Minced shiba ebi (shiba shrimp). Tamagoyaki (Japanese
omelette). Furthermore, how to cook vinegared rice. To smoke katsuo (bonito).
A tip to keeping the freshness of katsuo until nighttime. A reasonable thawing
method for ikura (salmon roe). Selection techniques for kanpyo (dried gourd). The
way to toast nori (dried seaweed) and the seasoning of gari (pickled ginger).
Needless to say, these are secret formulae that have never been taken out of the
sushi restaurants. Here lies the reason we call it “the ultimate.”
The nigiri that Jiro Ono makes is noble and beautiful. Kohada’s liveliness,
expressed by twisting the tip of the tail a tad to the left. Steamed awabi (abalone)
ever so soft that hugs the vinegared rice marvelously. Iwashi (sardine) that shows
the freshness of the catch through the dark flesh. Aromatic hatsu gatsuo (the first
bonito of the season) smoked with straw fire. The appetite-stimulating refined fat
of marbled kinkai hon maguro (bluefin tuna from the seas around Japan) and
bellows belly of otoro (fatty tuna). Brilliantly colored and aromatic nori maki
(vinegared rice rolled in seaweed) with its nori toasted with Kishu bincho charcoal
every morning. Readers are in for a visual feast every time they turn a page.
Take maguro (tuna) for example. When you look at the pictures of the whole
fish cut in round slices, you can clearly see the exact locations of lean meat, the
chutoro (medium-fatty tuna), the bellows belly of otoro (fatty tuna), and marbling at
a glance. I pat myself on the back that this book is a valuable record that’s very
useful for sushi craftsmen and enthusiasts, not to mention market participants. To
cut an expensive kinkai hon maguro into round slices is unprecedented.
In the beginning, I wrote, “the number-one sushi craftsman of the present day,
Jiro Ono.” This statement is certainly not an exaggeration. He not only possesses
the outstanding sense of smell, sense of taste, and taste-bud memory required to
be a first-class chef, but is also an extraordinarily tenacious perfectionist and
obsessive.
Ono works relentlessly to improve the flavors. And the nigiri he makes evolves
on a daily basis. For instance, he used to boil kuruma ebi (prawn) twice a day, in
the morning and at night, but now he cooks it right after taking the order and
makes lukewarm nigiri. And he now sticks to only the wild ones from Tokyo
Bay. He knows from trial and error that “kuruma ebi’s natural flavor is exerted at
its aromatic best at body temperature.” And “after boiling, the red and white of
the wild prawn from Tokyo Bay is the most beautiful compared to other places.”
It’s not just kuruma ebi. Every technique performed on each tane (topping)
advances rapidly. Therefore, each time I visit, I discover a “new heavenly body”
that is bliss in my mouth.
Where does his persistent spirit of inquiry come from?
When young Ono was a cook in Hamamatsu, he aspired to be a sushi chef and
at the age of twenty-six, in spring, entered an apprenticeship at the prestigious
Edomae-style nigiri restaurant Yoshino (in Kyobashi, Tokyo). It was a late restart.
He diligently learned by observing and imitating the techniques of his predecessor
at Yoshino, Suekichi Yoshino (deceased), who was famed as a maestro. The way
Ono toasts nori and creates the flavor of anago originated from what he learned
back then and developed according to his own style. Three years later, Jiro was
ordered to go to Osaka to head a restaurant for hire, and there, he encountered
authentic tako (octopus) from Akashi. Ono started to display his perfectionism
after he returned to Tokyo at the age of thirty-three. Using the local octopus of
Kanto, he attempted through trial and error to recreate the flavor and aroma of
octopus from Akashi. And at last, he determined that “the natural octopus flavor
is exerted at its aromatic best at body temperature” and that “for the
accompanying flavor, it is better to use coarse salt instead of the traditional sweet
and salty Edomae-style nitsume (reduction sauce).”
• I don’t make nigiri with tai (sea bream)
• Expensive and rare hoshi garei (starry flounder) is not the king of whitefish
• It’s out of pride as a sushi craftsman that I disregard profit and make shinko
(young gizzard shad) nigiri
• Without vinegared rice at body temperature, you can’t make tasty nigiri
• There is no particular order to eat nigiri
• Immediately after I make the nigiri, put it in your mouth
Reading the “Jiro Sushi Talk” in this book feels like listening to a maestro talk
about his art.
It’s been a half-century since a young man with great ambitions came to the
Eastern capital during the chaotic era of the ruin-of-fire black market. Jiro Ono,
who was born in 1925, managed to establish a famous Edomae-style nigiri sushi
restaurant in his lifetime. To this day, he, long past the age of seventy, still stands
in his kitchen and makes nigiri. And he continues to watch over how much
vinegar his young apprentices use for kohada and the seasoning condition of the
vinegared rice. His painstaking pursuit to improve his sushi tane continues.